November 24, 2010

WYNFIELD'S KINGDOM by MARINA JULIA NEARY

About the Book:

Welcome to 1830s Bermondsey, London’s most notorious slum, a land of gang wars, freak shows and boxing matches.  Dr. Grant, a disgraced physician, adopts Wynfield, a ten-year old thief savagely battered by the gang leader for insubordination.  The boy grows up to be a slender, idealistic opium addict who worships Victor Hugo.  By day he steals and resells guns from a weapons factory.  By night he amuses filthy crowds with his adolescent girlfriend, a fragile witch with wolfish eyes. Their tragicomic idyll ends when Wynfield falls under the spell of an elusive benefactress and leaves his bohemian, semi-criminal circle to follow her to Westminster.  There, in the company of blue-blooded outcasts, he learns the secret of his origin and the role he is destined to play in the history of England.  Invoking the ghosts of English anarchists, Guy Fawkes and Oliver Cromwell, Wynfield enters the world’s biggest tavern – the Parliament, where he meets the most ruthless boy gang in the world – the British aristocracy.  Using the mixture of chemicals, satire and horror, Wynfield stages an unforgettable performance and subdues the ruling class – if only for one day.

"Neary writes with unbelievable power, yet never loses her sense of emotional insight.... Wynfield's Kingdom is truly an extraordinary first novel.."


About the Author:

M.J. Neary is an award-winning historical essayist, multilingual arts & entertainment journalist, poet, playwright and actor.  Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals such as Alimentum and The Recorder. She serves on the editorial staff of the Bewildering Stories Magazine. Her historical tragicomedy Hugo in London, featuring the adventures of the French literary genius in England during the Crimean War, was produced in Greenwich, followed by a sequel, Lady with a Lamp: An Untold Story of Florence Nightingale. A specialist on the obscure works of Victor Hugo, she has lectured at the French Alliance.

In 2007 she was commissioned to collect and publish the memoirs of residents from a retirement community in Stamford, CT. The project involved interviewing over forty senior citizens over the age of ninety. A new Connecticut-based leisure publication Norwalk Beat has recently brought her on board as a steady contributor. She focuses on the entertainment industry in Connecticut. After having her short story accepted by Bewildering Stories Magazine, she was invited to join their editorial staff.

In addition to her writing, Neary has had a career in the performing arts. She has starred in several independent films shot in CT and NY; and, in the 1990s, she competed in various talent pageants in New England


Visit the author at              http://mjneary.webs.com/ 

Order from the publisher:   http://www.fireshippress.com/ 

Or from Amazon.com:      http://tinyurl.com/24s8p5r 

November 15, 2010

REVELATIONS by SANDY COHEN



About the Book:

Travel along with Manny Markovitz and his guide, Abis -- part Native American, part madman -- as they take you on a wild, always funny, sometimes poignant journey from the wilds of Greece to the bogs and barrier islands of south Georgia, USA in search for Abis's boss, Willy Love. Enter with them into a world of imagination, wild adventure and absolute delight as Manny wakens back to life and love after a great personal tragedy. Perhaps you will, too. Critic Erwin Ford calls Revelations "a Candide for the 21st century." 

PRAISE FOR SANDY COHEN AND REVELATIONS: 

"I love it! And I'm jealous. . . you're quite a writer. Such pure, unadorned dialect; good strong story. Your characters live." 
-- Janice Daugharty, author of Earl in the Yellow Shirt (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) 

"Moving . . . powerful. . . ." 
-- Elizabeth S. Morgan 

"A fine prose-poem." 
-Wayne Brown, author of On the Coast (winner of the Commonwealth Prize)


About the Author:

Before Revelations, Sandy Cohen published two books in Europe plus stories, articles, poetry, and essays in journals and magazines in the United States, Canada, China, Germany, England, and Greece. His work, critical and creative, has drawn praise from, among others, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Patrick White and Isaac Beshevis Singer. He has been a professor, jazz musician, bookbinder, actor and, for almost two decades, a humorous commentator on public radio. He appeared in his own mini-series for public television and in a feature film, Do Not Disturb, filmed in northern China, where he lived for a year. He currently resides in southwest Florida with his nearly-perfect family. 


Order Revelations from Amazon.com:      http://tinyurl.com/26gqskb 
Visit Sandy Cohen’s publisher at            http://allthingsthatmatterpress,.com





November 8, 2010

SONG OF GEORGE: PORTRAIT OF AN UNLIKELY HOLY MAN by Jesse S. Hanson 



About the Book:

Suppose you were standing, like a tourist protected by a guardrail, over an opening into the pit of hell, when suddenly the rail gave way and you tumbled in. You wouldn't know why - consumed with fear or anger, and surrounded by utter misery, it wouldn't make sense to you. Yet the fate of many of the poor souls in our prison mental facilities is not so very different from that scenario, their crimes often resulting from the effect of some form of mental illness. Who can help them? Enter George. 

About the Author:

Jesse S. Hanson is a North Dakota native, writer/musician. Jesse and his wife, Lilasuka, currently reside in Pennsylvania. He has also lived in the Pacific Northwest and in the Southwest. "I suppose restlessness is part of my nature. I'm never quite at home anywhere in the world, and that is part of why spirituality is the backdrop for all my writing. 


Order Hanson’s book from Amazon.com:          http://tinyurl.com/28dt5o4 

Visit his publisher:                                               http://allthingsthatmatterpress.com 


November 1, 2010

GOD'S VACATION by MICHAEL DAVIS



About the Book:

What happens when God develops a split personality, takes a vacation, is reborn as Spencer Perry, Gabrielle/Gabe Stevens, and Vrum, ends up in San Francisco, and forgets who S/he is?  Hell breaks loose! 

Spencer Perry becomes Chairman and CEO of the Global-Government and Business Alliance, and the most powerful man on Earth. His government rules with an iron fist; those close to him call him Father. 

Gabrielle Stevens gets a sex change and becomes Gabe. He lands a job at Upside Down Books, meets Carlos Martinez, and falls in love with a beautiful Jewish woman named Naomi Peterson. They join the revolutionary movement to take on Spencer Perry's fascist regime. 

Vrum, a member of a race of androgynous aliens called the Ekawa, discovers the Focal Point is located in San Francisco and travels across the galaxy to bring Gabrielle and Spencer back together, but fails. The problem is, they don't want to be God. 

Legend says there's another way to put God back together, but it's a long shot. If 144,000 people can become wholly enlightened at the same time, they can insist that God become whole, and S/he must comply.

GOD'S VACATION is a fast-paced, off-beat dystopian thriller set in 2031 when global warming has wreaked havoc and outsourcing has left most people jobless and hungry. It is complex, political, philosophical, psychological, and satirical. It is a new take on an old story. It is timely and empowering. 

About the Author:

Michael Davis is a retired educator. He was a political columnist and served two terms as a city councilman. He has studied western and eastern religions, mysticism, psychology and the occult. He and his wife live in northern California, where he is currently working on another novel.


Order God’s Vacation at Amazon.com:     http://tinyurl.com/24ngbev 

Visit Michael Davis’s site:  http://godsvacation.blogspot.com/ 

Visit his publisher at http://allthingsthatmatterpress.com